The Lingo: “Watching Colorado State, they’re impressive. Oh, they’re impressive. I’m sure you’ve seen that yourself. They’re well-coached and have a lot of real good pieces and are fun to watch because they’re unselfish and hard to score against.”

— Marty Simmons, Evansville coach

CSU Rams

Coach: Larry Eustachy

Record: 5-0

The Lingo: “It doesn’t matter if I come off the bench or am starting, I have to play my game. I love my team and with everything Larry (Eustachy) is telling us, we have to come out and play. There’s a reason I’m starting with Pierce (Hornung) out and I have to be ready.”

— Daniel Bejarano, CSU guard

Inside scoop: CSU and Evansville tip off the annual Mountain West/Missouri Valley Challenge this afternoon inside Moby Arena and, once again, the Rams will be without the services of their leading rebounder Pierce Hornung, who has concussion-like symptoms. In his place is expected to be Daniel Bejarano, making his second straight start.

While Colorado State University will be down a star, Evansville has one back in senior guard Colt Ryan. Ryan, who averaged 20.5 points per game last season, has been limited to only 59 minutes this year with a hip pointer.